EDWARDSVILLE – Lincoln Middle School hosted its first Lincoln/Liberty Lip Sync Battle on April 6. A total of 15 acts made up of sixth, seventh and eighth grade LMS students performed for a grand prize of $100.

Proceeds collected from the event will benefit the Edwardsville District 7 Special Olympic athletes. Mark Tschudy, Liberty/Lincoln Prevention Counselor and EHS Social Worker, explained that the idea for this event was "borrowed" from Edwardsville High School.

"EPIC (Edwardsville Peer Influence Club) at the high school puts on an annual Lip Sync Battle and the kids at the middle school thought it would be a fun idea to replicate," he said. The middle school students formed organizational teams at each grade level - for both Liberty and Lincoln - to search performers.

"Some organizational teams even filmed recruitment videos to encourage participation," Tschudy said. "Then they held tryouts at each building and selected acts they felt best represented the competition."

A total of 15 different acts performed by lip syncing from a huge variety of songs including pop songs, Disney, and even some Broadway tunes. "We had everything including music from 'Hamilton' to Michael Jackson. From 'The Lion King' to Justin Bieber," Tschudy explained. "We also had some throw-back songs like 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' and 'Bohemian Rhapsody.'

Of course, no middle school Lip Sync battle would be complete without a few songs from 'High School Musical.'" Students competing were asked to rehearse and come prepared with any props or costumes they wanted to include in their performance. A dress rehearsal took place the Wednesday before the competition in order to help each act prepare for the competition.

"It definitely was entertaining to see our students practicing and performing with their props and costumes," Tschudy said. The Lip Sycn Battle event was completely organized by the LMS students. Even student hosts introduced each act the night of the event. The winning act was chosen by peer voting that took place at the end of the evening.

"This year's winning act was a Liberty seventh grade team of Tyler Dacus and Montrez West performing Mackenzie Ziegler's 'Teamwork,' Tschudy pointed out. "The combination of Tyler's lip sync skills and Montrez's dance moves made for quite a show."

Although the main reason to host this competition was to have fun, the students also planned to raise money for District 7 Special Olympics. Proceeds from the $3 entry to the Lip Sync Battle will be used for the Special Olympics Banquet that takes place in May.

"Each year the district hosts a banquet to celebrate the achievements of our Special Olympics athletes and coaches," Tschudy added. "This banquet is hosted at Liberty Middle School and organized by students in G.O. and F.I.T. We really enjoy being a part of this special evening and celebrating the achievements of our District 7 athletes. The evening is filled with food, fun and, of course, awards."

Events like the Lip Sync Battle are representative of what the F.I.T. (Friends In Touch) program hopes to achieve. "We always look to host a fun, safe, positive event for our Wildcats and Panthers, while making a difference in their school and community," Tschudy said. "I was very impressed with the outcome of this event - especially considering it was our first time," he added. "We had a little over 150 in attendance, and the students are already talking about what song they want to perform next year.